Adult Interactions and Child Engagement
- 1 January 2003
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Early Education and Development
- Vol. 14 (1), 7-28
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1401_2
Abstract
The purposes of this study were to investigate how engagement varied as a function of concurrent adult interactions (e.g., individual versus group orientation, type of teacher interaction) and pre-existing states (e.g., age, ratings of typical engagement). Eleven child care teachers and 63 children were videotaped in 93 naturally occurring child care situations. Two teacher interaction categories, elaborations and information giving, were associated with participatory engagement, attention, and low engagement. Interaction behaviors that were responsive without providing direction and those that were directive without responding to children were not associated with engagement. Individually targeted interactions produced more engagement than did group-targeted interactions. Chronological age, developmental age, and ratings of persistence did not statistically significantly affect engagement.Keywords
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